Thursday, September 25, 2008

Poor little Fifi is sick. I don't know what is wrong with her, but she's miserable. Her temperature was somewhere between 38 and 40 degrees C today. Three different readings, but the most accurate (under her arm) said 38 so I went with that rather than panicking over the 40 that was read on the forehead strip. She won't sleep or eat, but she won't sit quietly either. She just cries a lot.

So Scott is off work again. This time, it's to help take care of his daughter and his wife. My third trimester has been really crappy. Morning sickness (well, morning nausea) and headaches have returned. Along with the usual tiredness and back/belly ache. Bleh. So it's not normal around here at all. I've skipped most of our weekly toddler groups (Tuesday, Fifi just stood at the door saying, 'Tod? Tod? Car?') and today I had to skip my breastfeeding group. We left Toddlers early this morning because Fifi was so miserable. She just sat in my lap the whole time, asking for milk with her signs.

However, I have some good news! Inverclyde Council has announced a small budget allotted for giving grants to parents who want to use cloth nappies! So I got to order £80 worth of nappies for the new baby, all to be reimbursed by the council! I have cloth nappies for Spooce, Fifi's old ones, but it makes me happy that she'll be getting some new ones. Since they were essentially free, I ordered some Fuzzi Bunz (love Fuzzi Bunz), along with some Blueberry minky side snap nappies, Minki nappies, Nature Baby Stuffables and ... the best... one of these (look at the order page - it's the pink puppy). Yes, that last one was a splurge. (So were the Blueberries.)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Well, our anniversary week is over. We never managed to do all the things we planned, like take a walk around Cornalees or go for pizza and a movie, but we still had a good week together. Very relaxing, very enjoyable. Callander was fantastic - pictures here. We took a rainy walk around the duck pond, spent money in an amazing used bookstore and visited the Hamilton Toy Museum. The hotel was really nice; the room was big, there was a double and a single bed so Fifi got to sleep on her own (or rather, Scott and I got to sleep on OUR own), and it served dinner and breakfast both days. Fifi was an angel the whole time, too, and charmed all the wee old couples gracing the hotel (we were the youngest there by a very large margin).

Now we are settled back into normal life, with Scott back at work and Fifi and I back into our weekly routines of TinyTalk classes, Mother & Toddler groups and Breastfeeding groups. Today on the agenda is a morning Mother & Toddler group, and then while Fifi sleeps, I need to call around a few places to do some business stuff. When Fifi wakes up, we're going to have some fun with salt dough! I bought glitter paints yesterday for us to paint our creations. I'm very excited.

The weather here is getting very autumny. I love the chill in the air. I love wearing jumpers. Yesterday turned out extremely hot, but the morning felt like a perfect Autumn day. As much as I enjoy the sunshine and won't begrudge a day of it, I love when the weather goes like this.

It's 6.45am right now. Fifi and I have been up since 6, I think. I think it's now time to go wake Scott and make him take over while I go get washed up and dressed. Fifi is happily working a puzzle in her high chair and watching 'bears' (Care Bears). So now might be a good time to escape.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

This is the beginning of our anniversary week. This year is number four. Scott's idea for our anniversary this year was to 'recreate' our favourite memories together, or favourite dates. He took the whole week off, so we could do things together.

We kicked off the week last night with a recreation of our first Valentine's meal. Scott had been the original chef (!), but I made the tea last night: steak, mashed potatoes, lemon-butter asparagus and raw carrots. (We also added a side salad and fruit salad for dessert.) We played Mozart, like we did that first Valentine's Day.

Today we are heading off for Callander, which isn't sentimental in any way, but it's a few days away, which is nice! Fifi will be with us, so we'll just have a nice family trip. When we come back on Thursday, our anniversary day, we'll send Fi over to Granny's and we're off to our favourite restaurant, Thai Siam. We also plan to go for a walk at Cornalees (where we first held hands) and get dinner at KFC and walk along the Esplanade (like the night we got engaged). Pizza Hut and a movie are hopefully on the agenda too, since that used to be our regular Friday night outing, when we were DINKYs.

The fourth anniversary is traditionally gifts of fruit and flowers. My gift to Scott was a couple of bunches of carnations (being the type of flower I bought him when we got engaged, while he bought me Oriental Lilies, thus inspiring one of his songs he wrote for me), sitting in new Irn Bru glasses, and a guitar pick flower. His gift to me is Season One of Pushing Daisies.

(Click on the picture to see more of our dinner last night, and follow along as we post more pictures of our week.)

Friday, September 12, 2008

Been trying to clean out Fifi's room for a while to make room for Spooce. I seriously didn't think it was possible until I really got in there and got to work today. Turns out I have a lot of useless baby crap to get rid of. I've actually managed to fit all of Fifi's clothes and Spooce's clothes into the same chest of drawers, using drawer organisers, various storage boxes and a bit of clearing out. Did Fifi really need thirty sleep suits when she was 0-3 months? Sure, they were cute, but that many? I managed to sort through the sleep suits and get them down to a reasonable number that fits side-by-side with Fifi's toddler pajamas. The rest of the adorable sleep suits have gone to Maria who is having a baby girl next month. The same goes for t-shirts, though this time it was Fifi's toddler stuff that had to be reckoned with. She didn't need an entire drawer full of t-shirts any more than Spooce will need all those sleep suits.

I'm finally getting use out of the drawer organisers I bought a while ago, by putting Fifi's socks in one box, Spooce's in another, and ditto on the frilly knickers. It looks really tidy in that drawer now.

A wall-mounted storage hanger now has all the hats, tights and baby shoes neatly tidied away.

I also went through some pink storage bins I've had in her bookshelf forever and discovered that a) I have, like, six zillion wash clothes, b) I have, like, six zillion cloth baby wipes and c) I was a major pack rat with Fifi. So I cleared those out, and now from three overflowing bins, I have one neat full one and two empty ones. I'm giddy.

I've also moved all of the outgrown baby clothes and still-to-be-grown-into toddler clothes from various shopping bags and boxes into underbed storage bags. 5 vinyl jumbo 'blanket' bags for £10 have neatly stored all of Spooce's still-to-be-grown-into clothes, all of Fifi's s-t-b-g-i clothes, a double bed duvet and all my sewing fabric under Fifi's bed. Yes, that leaves one still unused!

However, I might take care not to get too excited. I still have several boxes of baby clothes in the loft. Who knows what else I might find. Glad the church is having a jumble sale next weekend. I'll be donating LOTS.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

I am so proud of myself. I just fitted our new toilet seat to the toilet. It was the most vile job I have ever done in my life, but I did it. Considering our toilet is that awful burgundy colour from the '70s, I can guess our toilet is about 30 or 40 years old and most likely has never had a new toilet seat (oh my gosh, I might puke). So unscrewing the old one (which had broken) and refitting the new one was totally disgusting and horrifying and foul. I can't stop washing my hands. But I did it. It needed to be done and I did it. I am so very proud of myself.

I'll probably have a few nightmares about it though. I'm not your typical 'germaphobe', but I do have my compulsive fears - outdoor rubbish bins and toilets being two of them. The germs I imagine festering on those two items are enough to make me want to bathe in a tub of ammonia. I really wish I had a tub of ammonia.

But we have a new toilet seat. A clean, never-been-used-before toilet seat. Peeing will now be a much less stressful affair.

If I can ever stop washing my hands (which I'm off to do again, after spraying down the keyboard).

about the blogger

lori arnold mcfarlane

is a blogger and author living in Arkansas.

When she's not writing, working or herding her three children and asshole cat, Lori enjoys quietly reading (any book will do), drinking hot tea (milk, no sugar), exercising (sometimes) and when the notion hits, sewing, baking or crafting.

All opinions on this blog are entirely her own, and can and will probably one day be used against her in the court of law. Or in an attack ad, should she ever run for public office. They do not reflect the opinions of her employer.